Slither - Edward Lee [78]
Her snorkeling and photo gear lay beside her. The sun was heating her up. Might as well make some calls while I'm just lying around. She couldn't wait to tell her friends about this little expedition. When she opened her cell phone she noticed that her fianck had left several messages. Better to let him wait, she decided. She liked to let him stew; it kept him wondering. He needs to appreciate me more .. .
She called her best girlfriend in New York and got to chatting. "The funniest thing of all is how dumb these people are," she was saying. "None of them know I'm a newbie; I've got them believing I'm the magazine's premier nature photographer-they don't know this is only my third assigrunent. The idiots think I've been all over the world!"
More chatter.
"Well, of course! There's this army guy here, nothing to write home about but he's good for some diversion. I wouldn't pay him the time of day back home, but on this island? Why not? And, no, I don't consider it cheating at all-strictly recreational. What I do is my business. Shit, my fianck's the lucky one. What he doesn't know won't hurt him." Then she giggled. "But I better never catch him cheating on me! What I'd do to him would make Lorena Bobbit look like Shirley Fucking Temple."
Still more chick-thing chatter.
"Oh, and you wouldn't believe the damn professorshe's a worm professor, can you believe it?-this skinny frizz-head cunt with permanent PMS. Looks like Olive Oil on Popeye. I'm playing so many head games with her, it's actually fun, and I'll bet she's never been laid in her life! She's so jealous of my bod that you can see steam coming out her ears. Oh, and she's got this dork assistant named Loren-nerd and a half. I'm always giving him an eyeful to keep him riled. That poor kid probably plays with himself ten times a day! When I'm bored, I tease the shit out of him. It's so much fun!"
Suddenly the line fell silent, and after a moment, all she could hear was fuzz.
I knew I shouldn't have changed my service. She leaned up, frowning, and redialed.
Nothing but fuzz over the line.
Then she dialed her fiance.
Fuzz.
"Goddamn cell phones," she muttered and put it away.
(II)
"Are those numbers that have just worn away from age?" Nora suggested.
.No, I don't think so," Trent said. He still had his eye pressed to the microscope, focusing down on the tiny lens or element or whatever it was. They were trying to figure out the ..-::markings. "They don't look like they're worn or eroded at all. It must be some kind of a microbar code. The military uses nomenclature codes to mark security equipment. Same thing as a model number, only coded."
"Security equipment," Nora said, "which makes sense on a camera lens that small. So that other thing I found on the cord-it must be a security key."
Trent looked back at her. "Thing on the cord?"
"The thing you said was a radio calibrator," Nora reminded him.
"It had the same markings?"
"See for yourself." She placed the object on the stage.
"The configuration is different but it's the same style," Trent observed now.
"And you said you've seen them before?"
"I've seen the same sort of thing, but nothing exactly like these. Usually they're numbers or letters."
"A newer system?"
"It's got to be. For certain kinds of specialized equipment, the army needs to mark it in a way that can't be deciphered by an enemy in the field. I'm sure if you ran a scanner across these markings it would tell you exactly what this thing is, when it was made, model number, lot number, stuff like that. It would also tell you what it's a key for." Trent paused, puzzled. "I'm going to call the S-3 officer at my post, see if he knows anything about this island still being used for anything."
"But you're the guy who checks the island every month," Nora pointed out. "Wouldn't you be the first to know?"
"Not necessarily," he said. "This thing's got me thinking." He held it up. "A key, then a security lens, and what you told me this morning."
'Huh?"
"About the lights being on in some of the head shacks."
Oh yeah, Nora thought.